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Friday, December 11, 2015

Maybe Dr Mahathir forgot

Salleh Said Keruak Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that he does not wish to destroy the party and that his loyalty to Umno and Barisan Nasional has never wavered. Maybe Dr Mahathir forgot that during his quarrel with one-time Umno President and Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi he resigned from Umno. Because of his personal differences with the Umno leader Dr Mahathir left the party. So there was a time when his loyalty to the party did waver. Because Dr Mahathir resigned from the party and during his road show to oppose the Prime Minister he told Malaysians to teach Umno and Barisan Nasional a lesson by voting for the opposition, Umno and Barisan Nasional actually did badly in the 2008 general election although it still won but with a simple majority. The ruling party also lost five states in that election, the first time such a thing ever happened. So how can Dr Mahathir talk about his loyalty to the party and to the coalition when his actions actually hurt the party and the coalition? The same thing is happening now and if Umno and Barisan Nasional do suffer in the next general election it will be because of what Dr Mahathir is currently doing. Dr Mahathir says it is not wrong to criticise and that the number two should criticise the number one. When Dr Mahathir was the party President and Prime Minister he did not tolerate criticism from Tun Musa Hitam and Anwar Ibrahim, or even from the then Umno Youth Leader, Zahid Hamidi. He said that there should be a proper platform for this and it should be an internal matter and not an act of washing dirty linen in public. When Dr Mahathir was the Prime Minister he did not allow what he is now saying should be allowed. He accuses Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak of restructuring the party voting system so that only divisional votes counted to stay in power whereas it was Dr Mahathir who introduced the bonus vote system and the “no challenge for number one and number two” rule to prevent anyone from challenging him.